What is My Favorite Year (musical)?

Information about My Favorite Year (musical)

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My Favorite Year
Original Production Poster
MusicStephen Flaherty
LyricsLynn Ahrens
BookJoseph Dougherty
Based upon1982 film My Favorite Year
Productions1992 Broadway
My Favorite Year is a musical with a book by Joseph Dougherty, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens.

Based on the film of the same name, it is set in the 1950s and centers on Benjy Stone, a sketch writer for a television variety show starring Sid Caesar-like King Kaiser. Signed for a guest appearance is Errol Flynn-like Alan Swann, a one-time movie idol whose career was disrupted by his addiction to alcohol and loose women. The task of keeping him sober and celibate until airtime falls to Benjy, who soon finds himself involved in a sequence of shenanigans unlike any he ever experienced before.

After 45 previews, during which the creative team constantly reworked the troubled production, the show, directed by Ron Lagomarsino and choreographed by Thommie Walsh, opened on December 10, 1992 at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, where it ran for 36 performances. The opening night cast included Evan Pappas, Tim Curry, Katie Finneran, Andrea Martin, Josh Mostel, and Lainie Kazan, who reprised the role of Benjy's mother she had played in the film.

My Favorite Year received mixed-to-negative reviews. The New York Times's Frank Rich called the musical "a missed opportunity, a bustling but too frequently flat musical that suffers from another vogue of the 1950s, an identity crisis,"[1] and disapproved of the melodramatic turn taken in the show's second act, while Time magazine condemned it as a "barren Broadway musical."[2]

Despite the show's failure, several of its stars garnered attention during awards season, and an original cast recording was released on the RCA Victor label.

In March 2007, The Chicago Sun-Times revealed that Flaherty and Ahrens were "reworking the show with an eye on a new Broadway production."[3] Flaherty said that, "In hindsight, I think our decision to paint the musical in somewhat darker colors was a mistake." Among the revisions made to the show are two new songs, which were incorporated into a March 2007 repertory production of the show.

Songs

Act I
  • Twenty Million People - Benjy Stone and Company
  • Larger Than Life - Benjy
  • The Musketeer Sketch - Benjy, Sy Benson, King Kaiser, Alice Miller, K. C. Downing, Leo Silver and Herb Lee
  • Waldorf Suite - Benjy
  • Rookie in the Ring - Belle Steinberg Carroca
  • Manhattan - Alan Swann, Benjy and Ensemble
  • Naked in Bethesda Fountain - Sy, Alice, Leo, Herb and K. C.
  • The Gospel According to the King - King Kaiser, Alan and Company
  • The Musketeer Sketch Rehearsal - Benjy, Alan and Ensemble
  • Funny / The Duck Joke - K. C. and Alice
  • The Musketeer Sketch Rehearsal (Part II) - King Kaiser, Alan and Ensemble
  • Welcome to Brooklyn - Uncle Morty, Rookie Carroca, Belle Steinberg Carroca, Aunt Sadie, Benjy, Alan and Neighbors
  • If the World Were Like the Movies - Alan

Act II
  • Exits - Alan
  • Shut Up and Dance - K. C. and Benjy
  • Professional Showbizness Comedy - Alice, King Kaiser and Ensemble
  • The Lights Come Up - Alan and Benjy
  • Maxford House - Maxford House Girls
  • The Musketeer Sketch Finale - Company
  • My Favorite Year - Benjy and Company

Awards and nominations

  • Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (Curry, nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Martin, winner and Kazan, nominee)
  • Theatre World Award (Martin, winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Mostel, nominee)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Martin, winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations (nominee)

References

1. ^ Rich, Frank. "Review: A Rosy View of a Golden Age", The New York Times, 1992-12-11. Retrieved on 2007-04-03. 
2. ^ "A Favorite No More", Time, 1992-12-21. Retrieved on 2007-04-03. 
3. ^ Weiss, Hedy. "A new 'Year': Playwrights breathe livelier life into musical", Chicago Sun-Times, 2007-03-09. Retrieved on 2007-04-03. 

External link

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Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musicals
Lucky Stiff • Once on This Island • My Favorite Year • Ragtime • Seussical • A Man of No Importance • Dessa Rose • The Glorious Ones
Film: Anastasia
Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960 in Pittsburgh, PA) is an American composer of musical theatre in collaboration with Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for the shows Once on This Island, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards and Ragtime
..... Read more.
Lynn Ahrens (born October 1, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist who most-frequently works with Stephen Flaherty. They are best known for the shows Once on This Island, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards, and Ragtime
..... Read more.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1979 1980 1981 - 1982 - 1983 1984 1985

Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII
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IMDb profile
My Favorite Year is a 1982 comedy film which tells the story of a young comedy writer. It stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Cameron Mitchell and Gloria Stuart.
..... Read more.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s  1970s  1980s  - 1990s -  2000s  2010s  2020s
1989 1990 1991 - 1992 - 1993 1994 1995

Year 1992 (MCMXCII
..... Read more.
Broadway theatre[1] is the most well known form of professional theatre to the American general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows.
..... Read more.
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, spoken dialogue and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the
..... Read more.
Stephen Flaherty (born September 18, 1960 in Pittsburgh, PA) is an American composer of musical theatre in collaboration with Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for the shows Once on This Island, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards and Ragtime
..... Read more.
Lynn Ahrens (born October 1, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist who most-frequently works with Stephen Flaherty. They are best known for the shows Once on This Island, which was nominated for eight Tony Awards, and Ragtime
..... Read more.
IMDb profile
My Favorite Year is a 1982 comedy film which tells the story of a young comedy writer. It stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Cameron Mitchell and Gloria Stuart.
..... Read more.
Sid Caesar

Sid Caesar

Born September 8 1922 (1922--) (age 85)
Yonkers, New York City, New York , U.S.A.
..... Read more.
Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn c.1940
Birth name Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn
Born May 20 1909(1909--)
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died September 14 1959 (aged 50)
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Thommie Walsh (born March 15 1950 - died June 16, 2007) was a Tony Award-winning American dancer, choreographer, and director.

Early life and career

Born as Thomas Joseph Walsh III in Auburn, New York, he was interested in dance from the age of five[1]
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December 10 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s  1970s  1980s  - 1990s -  2000s  2010s  2020s
1989 1990 1991 - 1992 - 1993 1994 1995

Year 1992 (MCMXCII
..... Read more.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (61,000 m²) complex of buildings in New York City which serves as home for 12 arts organizations: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Juilliard School,
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The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a theater in New York City in the United States. It is located at Lincoln Center, 150 W. 65th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was designed by the renowned Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen.
..... Read more.
Tim Curry

Tim Curry at the 47th Emmy Awards Governor's Ball, photo by Alan Light
Birth name Timothy James Curry
Born March 19 1946 (1946--) (age 61)
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Katie Finneran (born January 22, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Tony Award-winning American film, stage, and television actress.

Raised in Miami, Florida, Finneran attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for one year before moving to New York City at age 19 to
..... Read more.
Andrea Martin

Born January 15 1947 (1947--) (age 60)
Portland, Maine, U.S.
..... Read more.
Josh Mostel

Born November 21 1946 (1946--) (age 62)
New York, New York

Joshua Mostel
..... Read more.
Lainie Kazan

Kazan at the 79th Annual Academy Awards Children Uniting Nations/Billboard afterparty

Born May 15 1940 (1940--) (age 67)
New York City


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Frank Rich (born June 2, 1949 in Washington, D.C.) is a columnist for The New York Times who focuses on American politics and popular culture. His column ran on the front page of the Sunday arts and leisure section from 2003 to 2005; it now appears in the expanded Sunday
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Time (whose trademark is capitalized TIME) is a weekly American newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known as Time Atlantic) is published from London.
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RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony BMG Music Entertainment. RCA Records was founded in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Company, and the RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America, which was the parent corporation in the pre-BMG days.
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The April 4, 2007 front page
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid

Owner Sun-Times Media Group
Publisher John D. Cruickshank
Editor Michael Cooke
Founded 1948
Price USD 0.50 (In the City) 0.
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Repertory or rep, called stock in the U.S., is a term from Western theatre. A repertory theater can be a theater in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation.
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Tony Award

Designed by Herman Rosse, 1949
Awarded for Excellence in theatre
Presented by American Theatre Wing and the League of American Theatres and Producers
Country  United States
First awarded 1947
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The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor given annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance.

Inaugural recipients included Betty Comden, Judy Holliday and John Raitt.
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The Drama Desk Award, created in 1955, is an award recognizing shows produced off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and for legitimate not-for-profit theaters, in addition to Broadway productions.
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